Rollergal
by Candaru
Summary: After the FP is destroyed, Kizuna is left feeling alone and abandoned, so she takes a tip from Zetto and creates her own alternate account- her own Kirbopher. She ends up "meeting" the squire himself and befriending his friends, joining the gang as if she's always belonged there. But as she should have known, no secret can stay a secret forever... (GC/SOFDTI theory is included.)
1. The creation of Rollergal

The Netkings, at least, were happy.

The Forbidden Power had been erased. Players were starting to log back in again, reuniting with the friends they'd thought they'd lost and challenging each other to battles to get back into the swing of things. Alpha, Flamegirl, and Nylocke were safe and sound, and too relieved that Kirbopher was okay to get mad at him for hiding his secret identity. The squire himself had taken a number, but was recuperating and was, at the very least, able to carry out day-to-day activities. Even Neomutant had been praised for his noble intentions and had by this time found another certain hot-head to hit on to pass the time. It would seem that all was well again, and in a couple more weeks or so, TOME would be back to normal.

Oh, yes- and then there was Kizuna.

You would think that she would be happy. The virus was gone, her goal was accomplished, and she no longer had to stay up nights on end to check and recheck long strands of coding. But… something still wasn't right. The cat-lover began to notice feelings of isolation she'd put up walls to creeping in, and she had nothing to distract herself with. The young man she'd once called her work partner visited her occasionally, but he never seemed sure of what to say. She didn't blame him- after a full year of shunning him and shrugging off any suggestions to relax or have fun, she must have seemed a complete jerk. Indeed, he spent very little time with her and was hanging out more often than ever with Alpha and the others. She was almost tempted to ask if she could hang out with them sometime, but… she knew they'd never accept her. She knew who she was- the gal that almost got their best friend killed- and on multiple occasions, no less. Even she was disgusted by herself when she considered that fact. That she had even gone so far as to get him hurt… she deserved to be dead. So it was of no surprise to her when he seemingly stopped talking to her altogether.

It was on a Saturday when she had absolutely nothing to do that Kizuna sat down at her old desk, picked up a (literally dusty) art tablet, and began to draw. She sketched absentmindedly until she looked up at her screen and saw what she'd just created.

Her first thought was that she REALLY needed to get used to drawing again. Her second thought was that, wow, she used to make OCs all the time. But because she'd been busy with her work, she hadn't done that since… well, since she made her first design for her TOME character.

…

 _Hmm…_


	2. Meeting the Gang

"Hey, guys!"

Alpha looked up and waved. "Hey, Kirb! Over here!"

The blue-clad imp walked over to join his friends. Feeling only slight disappointment at checking his PM Inbox and finding it empty, he sat down on one of the purple rocks near Nylocke's and joined the group.

"No battle request?" Alpha said in a teasing manner, untwining his hand from Stephanie's and forming a Vulcan Fist.

"Well, everyone already knows I can beat you now," he teased back, glancing several times at his inbox.

"Is everything quite alright, squire?" Nylocke asked, leaning over to see what Kirb was looking at. "Though we are all aware of your capabilities in combat, you have yet to beat Sir Alpha in your imp-like body."

"Yea, yea," he said, glancing one last time before closing the tab, "I'll beat him in a minute flat."

Alpha, taking that as a challenge, loaded up a battle grid and immediately got ready for a lightning-based attack.

While Nylocke and Gamecrazed watched, Flamegirl was distracted by a player peeking out from one of the tall purple rocks nearby. She looked about Kirb's height, with a paintbrush necklace undoubtedly intended for battle and bright pink roller skates that probably increased her speed. Confident that she already knew how Kirb and Alpha's battle would end, she decided instead to spend the time studied the girl's stats. According to them, she'd only been playing TOME for a few days, although she had a fair win record, and she didn't give any info on her real name or location… Oh, she was looking this way.

"Hey, Steph!" Alpha said, looking over his shoulder at her with his foot planted in victory on Kirbopher's chest. "What are you looking at?"

"C'mere!" She replied, motioning for him to come join her. The girl suddenly shifted a little further behind the rock. Flamey waved to let her know it was okay.

"Hey, you! Ahh…" She looked at the girl's screenname. "Rollergal! Come on over!" Timidly, the character skated over, her paintbrush charm swinging side to side with her character model.

"Ah ha! Was thou on looking the battle between Sir Alpha and Squire Kir-bo-pher?" Nylocke asked her. Seemingly unsurprised by his old English tone, she nodded meekly.

"Th-they're really good," she squeaked out, clearing her throat.

"Eh, well, someday you'll have to see us battling when I'm not distracted," Kirbopher said, shrugging and sticking his tongue out at Alpha. Alpha punched him in the shoulder in response.

"Don't listen to him. Kirb never wins. Anyway, what's your name?" Alpha asked the girl, studying her overly-bright character model. It did have a theme to it, but it seemed like whoever was drawing it wasn't sure quite what direction to go in. Unusual, since most people on TOME had models based off of whatever they were into at the time of their creation.

"You can call me Rollergal," she said, pointing to her screen name, "i-if that's alright."

"'Tis more than alright if thou is not quite yet comfortable with sharing thou's personal information over this virtual land," Nylocke assured her. Flamegirl laughed.

"You'll have to excuse Nylocke, he's a role-player. Although he doesn't seem to bother you nearly as much as most newbies we run into," she laughed.

"Duly noted," she responded. Alpha looked at the girl curiously.

"For a newb, you've got a pretty good win record," he said, browsing through her stats for himself.

"Um… thank you," she said, glancing sideways at Kirbopher. "I'm pretty good at battling. Though I'm not a high enough level to unlock the expanded grids yet."

Alpha raised his eyes in surprise. "Where did you learn about the expanded grids? You don't even get a notice about those until you're, like, level ten."

"O-oh," she responded, "um- I have an older friend that plays TOME. Uh- she told me a bit about the game."

"Ah." The others in the group nodded in approval. "It would've been nice to have a tutor when I first joined TOME…" his voice drowned out as he looked at Kirb, undoubtedly thinking about the Forbidden Power. "Anyways, welcome to TOME!"

"Thank you," she said, bowing her head.

"Hey," Flamegirl suddenly piped up, "Why don't we take her on the Parkour Quest?"

"Wait, wait, there's a quest I don't know about?!" Kirb asked. "Why didn't you guys tell me about this?"

"We were going to," Alpha laughed, "until you felt the need to add another loss to your battle record."

"Ah. Well. I'm okay with this gal tagging along, as long as she knows her place. Got it?" he asked her, in a joking tone.

"R-right. Thanks," she said. Gamecrazed was the only one of the group to notice the fleeting blush on her face- and Gamecrazed didn't need to notice anything. She had her eyes locked on Rollergal's, contemplating her deeply. The girl stepped back in sudden surprise when she noticed the purple shadow's unwavering gaze on her- then shuddered and quickly looked away.

"Well," Flamegirl said, standing up, "the quest is in ;Sanctuary so others can't mess you up on your parkour by attacking you, and we're still on the far end of ;Lavendera. Should we get going?"

"Come on, Flamey!"

"We believe in your skill! Do not doubt your instincts!"

"You can do better than THAT, little miss sunshine!"

Rollergal watched with intrigue as Flamegirl attempted the sky part of the parkour, in which characters had to time their jumping to land on the platforms before they disappeared and get across the sky. VR technology had certainly come a long way since even the beginning of TOME, and the Netkings were utilizing every part of it.

"You made it this far, Steph! Don't let us down, now!" Alpha cried up to his girlfriend. Although neither of them had used the specific terms, the relationship was at this point very obvious to everybody.

"Ahh!" She cried, as she jumped into thin air. Her model was taken control of by the invisible force that brought it safely down to the beginning of the parkour, where the others were waiting.

"Aww," Alpha said, "I really thought you'd make it. You got farther than any of us."

"I concur," Nylocke nodded, and then mumbled quietly to himself, "Jumped too soon…"

"Hey," Flamegirl suddenly spoke up, "why don't you give it a try, Rollergal?"

The "newbie" stepped back a little. "Me?"

"Yea, you," Stephanie laughed. "You're allowed to participate. Since it doesn't involve combat, there aren't limitations on how long you've had to play to try this quest."

"Oh," she replied somewhat quietly. She contemplated the idea for a moment, then smiled. "Yea, sure. Guess it can't hurt to try."

"Alright, alright. Maybe beginner's luck will be with her. If she gets us to the next level, though, I get to be the first one to try it out!"

"Yea, 'cuz you've been GREAT at the parkour so far," Alpha laughed. But he nodded to show that he was alright with Kirb being the first to try the next level, if they ever got to it.

"Well, what is thou waiting for? Head off on your quest of many obstacles, er…" Nylocke stuttered.

"Her name's Rollergal, Sherlock," Kirb said.

"Nye's probably just trying to come up with an old English title for you," Flamey laughed. "Go ahead on the quest. We'll see if he comes up with one by the time you get back."

Rollergal nodded and skated over to the beginning of the level. Instantly, she felt her model being absorbed by the force field that was keeping out attacks from players outside the parkour. She took a deep breath and looked at the first obstacle set- a simple "avoid the lava" jump sequence that stayed all at one elevation. She could see that after she completed that, she would climb a rock wall which had moving handholds, and then if she got to the top of _that_ she had a brief dodge-the-bullets session… Wow. The set was big, but not really all that impressive.

She quickly got through the first jump sequence and began climbing the rock wall, which seemed hard at first but was easy once you figured out the pattern of the shifting handholds. They were even color-coordinated to make it easier. Red went up one unit, right one unit, and down one unit in a twenty-five second time frame, then reversed itself. Yellow went right two units, left one unit, then switched between up and down one unit every other cycle. Green stayed put until within five units of a shifting purple, in which case it moved however many units it needed to be out of the range… ect, ect. This was a piece of cake.

As she neared the top of the wall, Rollergal heard the faint voices of the others below, cheering her on and gasping at how easily it seemed to come to her. It felt… good. Really good.

She returned her focus to the parkour. Dodging the CPU bullets was even simpler than the rock wall (which none of the others save Flamegirl had managed to scale), but the real challenge would be the sky session. Rollergal decided to study it while dodging the bullets so she could at least figure out the first section and wouldn't fall immediately after getting on the first platform.

Down on the ground, Alpha, Flamegirl, Nylocke, and Kirbopher were all looking at the girl in amazement.

"Jeez, she's GOOD!" Alpha said, putting a hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun.

"Like I said- beginner's luck," Kirb scoffed. But he, too, was secretly awed (and somewhat annoyed) by how well the girl was doing with so little experience.

"Looketh above!" Nylocke cried, and everyone turned their gaze to Rollergal, who by this point had reached the spot Flamegirl failed at previously.

"She's gonna make it!" Flamey yelled, clenching her fists in excitement.

Rollergal looked down below. What was the shouting about? Ah, well, she couldn't afford to get distracted- she was looking forward to watching Kirb fail at the next level. She made sure her rollers were retracted back into her shoes, and took the next leap as another contestant behind her fell off his platform.

She was hardly surprised when she reached the end. As she and her teammates were warped to the next enclosed area of ;Sanctuary, Alpha and Flamegirl congratulated her on her victory, while Kirbopher pretended to be unimpressed and Nylocke tried to come up with a title for the newcomer. Gamecrazed, of course, watched her thoughts as one would watch TV or an episode of a webshow.

"So," Flamegirl asked casually, "what's your secret?"

"What?" Rollergal asked, alarmed.

"You know," she said, "how you did the parkour so well. The rock wall thing? That was awesome! It seemed like you KNEW where the handholds would shift next."

Rollergal looked up in surprise. "Wait, you scaled the wall. I thought you figured it out?"

Flamegirl tilted her head, confused. "That was just luck. Figured out what?"

As Rollergal explained the patterns of the various colors of handholds and their respective moving patterns, Nylocke turned to Gamecrazed.

"I know thou isn't very well acquainted with the art of playing roles, but would thou possibly be willing to help me out?"

Gamecrazed turned. "What do you need help with?" she asked. Not because she couldn't have figured it out for herself, but she'd learned it was better to keep her mind-reading powers turned off unless she needed them- it freaked people out less.

"I can't for the life of me come up with a proper title for the young Rollergal," he frowned.

GC paused a moment, looked at the subject in question, then said, "How about princess?"

Nylocke tilted his head. "Not to be rude, but how does the girl's appearance portray a princess in the least?"

Gamecrazed shrugged innocently at Nylocke as if calling her "princess" was some inside joke.

"Hmm… Well, it doesn't seem quite proper to name her after something that she's not… Then again, you most likely know more about the girl than the rest of us."

The shadow nodded slightly. "You could say that."

"Hey, guys!" Kirb cried out, louder than necessary. "We're here!"

As the force released them into the next section, Kirb ran into the enclosed level and the others found a nearby bench to watch him with.

"So," Alpha asked the girl while sitting down, "what made you decide to get a TOME account? Your friend?"

"Um… Yea…" she responded awkwardly. It wasn't too far from the truth.

"Well, tell her thanks! She got us to the next parkour level," Flamegirl laughed. Rollergal laughed along, hoping desperately that it didn't sound fake.

"Ah… disappointment yet again," came Nylocke's voice as a blue form walked back to them in defeat.

"What kind of parkour IS this, anyway?" Kirb asked, sitting down next to Rollergal on the bench. "Parkour is supposed to be jumping and stuff! The quest giver didn't say there would be any puzzles!"

"Maybe Rollergal should try," Alpha suggested. "She figured out the rock wall."

"Puzzles?" The girl asked. She looked toward the course. This level was, indeed, comprised of different kinds of puzzles. The first- which Kirb had gotten stuck on- was a simple but difficult slide puzzle. It wasn't hard to figure out the final picture (the five Netkings standing side-by-side), but actually getting there was a whole other story.

"Well, I'll give it a try, if you want…" she responded.

"Nah," Flamey laughed, "Lemme try first. If I can't get it, she can go."

Rollergal shrugged and went over to sit on the bench, but was blocked by Kirb.

"Uh-uh," he said, "you aren't sitting down until I get a battle to even out the loss on my record from earlier."

She cracked a slight smile. "Fine. Have it your way."

Kirb quickly loaded up a battle grid, enclosing the two a small distance away from where Flamegirl was attempting to solve the puzzle.

"Now the key to a strong attack," he said, "is the 'oomph' you put into it."

She laughed. "I thought you wanted me to lose. Why should I take tips from you?"

He scoffed in response. "Fine. Be that way. Dust tornado!"

She dodged the swirling wind easily. Choosing her words carefully, she teased, "You shouldn't say the name of your attack before you do it. I know what to avoid."

He rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, "You sound like Kizuna." Thankfully, he was just annoyed, and not actually thinking about whether Rollergal sounded like Kizuna- in what she said or the voice in which she said it. Of course, she had taken the necessary precautions of adding a few simple voice filters just in case.

"Yah!"

She turned around and snapped out of her thoughts just in time to jump back from his oncoming sword.

"Come on, you've got attacks too, you know. Don't just dodge me!" He taunted.

"Alright, but you asked for it!" She teased back, starting to loosen up. Maybe she could actually pull this off and enjoy herself!

Picking up the paintbrush charm from her chest, she painted a blob of black color into the air, but gave it no particular shape.

Confused, Kirb asked, "A blob? What kind of minion is THAT?"

Rollergal cracked a smile. "That's what you're supposed to think. Minion-style attacks NEVER go as planned." And with that, she pointed the brush at Kirbopher and the blob of paint flew at him and over his eyes.

"Ahh! I can't see!" he yelped, stating the obvious. He swung his sword side-to-side to defend himself from her. Unfortunately, he forgot to swing UP- and within a moment, she'd knocked him to the ground with a blow to the forehead. Desperately, he grabbed what had just hit him- one of her multiple-purpose roller skates- and pulled her down with her. But the damage was already done- literally. As a "lose!" sign wavered above his head and the grid disappeared, Rollergal extended her hand to him and helped him up. Blushing in embarrassment, Kirb muttered, "Beginner's luck."

"Guys!" Flamey yelled. "I finished!"

Kirb turned his head in surprise. "Already?"

His question was confirmed by the invisible force that once again lifted them up as a group and carried them onto the beginning of the final three levels.

Rollergal smiled. This was shaping up to be a very good day.


	3. Part of the Group

_Nine days later_

"… and then she told us if we ever talked about it again, she'd cut our virtual heads off," Flamegirl laughed.

Kirbopher's attention was drawn away from the story by the figure logging in a short distance from where the group was sitting.

"Hey, cheater! Over here!" He called. Rollergal rolled her eyes at the nickname and skated over to the group, taking her seat next to him.

"Just because I best you in everything TOME…" she teased. He scoffed.

"Hey, Roller!" Flamegirl greeted. "Glad you could come."

"Yea, no prob," she responded. "What've you guys been up to?"

"Since yesterday?" Alpha laughed. She rolled her eyes.

"Well, what'd you want me to say? 'Hi, I know how you're doing, battle me?'"

"That's pretty much what Kirb does," Flamey remarked.

"Speaking of which…" he said, and promptly initiated a battle with Rollergal.

"Was being bested in combat by Sir Alpha regularly not enough for you, squire?" Nylocke teased. Kirb ignored him and started unleashing a flurry of dust tornadoes in Rollergal's direction. She threw splats of paint into each one, dodged, and let them rebound to him.

"How many attacks do you even HAVE?" he asked, annoyed. "You always seem to have something to refute mine with."

"Well, the paint counts as just one attack," she laughed. "It's what you DO with it that makes it special."

"Maybe the newb should be teaching _you_ , Kirb," Flamey joked. Her voice was muffled but hearable inside the grid.

Taking advantage of the distractions, Rollergal skated around Kirb and pulled off her charm's necklace. This time he was prepared, and turned around, unsheathing his sword as he did so. Roller extended the brush to make a slender but sturdy rod, and began to sword-fight with Kirb. The two parried in an exchange of blows before Rollergal dropped her weapon and threw herself at Kirbopher's feet, knocking him off balance and causing him to stumble to the ground as she reclaimed her weapon and stood back up. Then she planted the non-brush tip of her rod over the imp's heart firmly.

Kirbopher grumbled as his loss tally went up yet again, and got to his feet.

"You know, you're gonna have to work on your battling skills," his opponent remarked. "Beginner's luck won't work as an excuse for too much longer."

He sighed, frustrated with himself not only for losing the battle, but for everything he'd felt during it. His heart rate was higher during his normal daily battles with her than it was when he had a near win with Alpha. It was legitimately worrying him that Kizuna hadn't messaged him back yet he hadn't done anything about it; he was so distracted with coming up with ways to beat the new groupie in battle that he hadn't yet asked her why she'd not logged in for over a week. He pushed the thoughts aside and promised himself that if she wasn't back on TOME in three more days, he'd contact her via phone.

"So," Flamey asked the group, "what do you guys wanna do now?"

Nylocke looked at Kirb. "Did the squire not say that there were rumors of the café in ;Mechcity obtaining a new feature?"

"Oh, yea." Kirb replied casually. "They're still figuring out a money system, but once that's put in place, they have the technology into tricking the brain into experiencing actual taste so you can buy food and coffee there."

Nylocke (somewhat uncharacteristically) whistled. "The technology of this world has indeed come a long way."

"Yea. I remember when-"Rollergal started. Flamegirl tilted her head.

"Remember what?"

"-when my friend told me this place used to only have sight and touch," she finished, glad she'd caught herself in time.

Kirb nodded. "Well, it's true. This place has really grown…" he looked around at the other players, most of whom were engaged in battle. He remembered how ;Lavendara used to look back in the Beta days. There was one time that Bitshrum forgot to add a base layer before designing the interface of a cliff, and Kizuna fell off it. She was shrieking so hard that all the Netkings teased her about it for a week. Zetto did, too, admittedly, but all in fun and games (and sometimes payback.) He wondered if she'd ever be able to be that carefree again… He really missed the old Kizuna.

"Uhh… Kirb? Earth to Kirb," Flamey said, waving a hand over his face.

"Augh! What?" he asked.

"Didn't you hear us? We're gonna go introduce Rollergal to Sat and Whitey," she said. Alpha looked at his buddy, slightly concerned.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Yea! F-fine! Heh, totally! Yea, let's go introduce little miss cheater to hothead number two and the fairy tail princess!"

Rollergal punched him in the shoulders playfully, barely containing herself from calling him "Sharkboy" like she used to. Instead, she just stole his stocking cap and said, "Come on, patches."

"So, do you hang out with these guys all the time?"

Rollergal was sitting with Alpha, Flamey, and most importantly Kirb, while Gamecrazed was off with Nylocke to talk to someone who seemed like they knew about an upcoming quest for the next month. Although they never used GC's powers directly to help them on quests, they were occasionally given hints on what to train for in prep.

"Nah," Saturndiva said, "We've only really met up with the guys a couple times. We hang out with Flames plenty, though."

"When did _you_ meet up?" Whitey asked the four. "I don't think we've seen Rollergal around."

"Roller's a newb," Flamey said, "But her skill surpasses Kirb's and possibly even mine and Alpha's."

"Hey!" Alpha said. "We're testing that."

"Ah-ha-ha! Don't get cocky, now," Flamey teased. Rollergal smiled. "I'll battle any one of you."

"In that case, I'll take a turn after Alpha," Whitey piped up. Saturndiva laughed. "Maybe if she can beat you two, first. I need a good challenge- beating Kirb is no great feat."

"HEYYYY…" Kirb said, his tone dangerous.

Alpha and Rollergal moved over to the alley next to the café and started up a grid just as Gamecrazed and Nylocke returned.

"So how'd it go?" Kirb asked, wishing he could see the battle more clearly than through the slightly opaque grid walls. He supposed he _could_ hack, but there wasn't any real need.

"Sir Gamecrazed was able to divulge a fair amount of information about an upcoming quest," Nylocke exclaimed gleefully. Even though her gender had long since been revealed, Nylocke usually still referred to Gamecrazed as a "Sir" out of habit.

"Cool!" Flamegirl said. "So what's the scoop?"

"The quest will be taking place late next month," Gamecrazed started, but she was quickly interrupted by the fading of the battle grid nearby.

Kirb's jaw dropped open when it was completely faded away, as did the others'. "No way!"

Rollergal was standing in triumph over Alpha, who was face-planted on the ground. As the brush in her hand shrunk back to normal size, she skated over to the group, Alpha following.

"You actually beat Alpha?" Whitey asked in wonder.

Saturndiva stepped up. "All right, I know what I said earlier, but I'm going next. For a newbie, you're real impressive, kid."

Whitey pouted. "But I was going to go next!"

Saturndiva smirked. "You can't beat Alpha yet, so there's no way you're going to beat this kid."

She sighed. "True."

Rollergal laughed and sat down at one of the café stools. "I'll battle Saturndiva next, but I need to take a break first."

Saturndiva shrugged. "Fair enough."

Flamegirl nodded at Gamecrazed to tell her to keep talking.

As she went on about the most probable opening date of the quest and the styles it might be, Kirb checked his inbox. Some old stuff from Alpha and Rollergal and the like, but no new messages. He hoped Kizuna was okay… Aah, he was probably overthinking it. Kizuna didn't message him unless it was about a business matter.

"That'll be the day Nylocke decides to quit role-playing," Flamegirl was saying. Rollergirl giggled at the analogy. Holy crud, she had a cute laugh… Although that could just be voice filters.

"What do _you_ think is more probable, Kirb?" Alpha asked.

"Uhh… I dunno," he said. To cover it up, he quickly added, "I'll tell you guys if I was right or not when the quest actually comes out."

"Psh," Saturndiva laughed. "Likely."

"Come on, guys," Flamey said. "We'll do a little bit of training for _every_ possible circumstance, but we have at least a month. Right now, I want to see how Sat fares against Roller."

"More like how _she_ fares against _me_ ," Saturndiva snarled. Rollergal took up fighting position in response.

"We'll see about that."


	4. PMing

_Three days later_  
From: Rollergal

To: Kirbopher  
Just battled the jerk you told me about, Sniperwheel! He was even easier than you, and unless you count my level one battles, I'm still the undefeated champ! P Anyway, u wanna hang out later? Since one of the things Flames said we should practice was team battling, we could hang near the stadium and team battle any fools that think they're strong enough to beat us ;P Lemme know what u think!

Team battling? With Rollergal? That sounded AWESOME, but…

From: Kirbopher

To: Rollergal

Sounds sweet! I just have to check on something first; my friend hasn't logged on in a few days and I need to make sure she's okay :P

There. He didn't need to elaborate too much. Now he just needed to log out, send her a text real quick, and- oh, wait, she responded already. Wow. She was a fast typer.

From: Rollergal

To: Kirbopher

Sounds cool to me. Who's the friend? I hope she's okay too :(

He hesitated. He really didn't feel like explaining the whole mess on how he knew Kizuna- but, wait! What if she hadn't heard of her yet? Her friend might have told her, but it didn't seem a likely fact to tell a newbie… Ah, he'd risk it.

From: Kirbopher

To: Rollergal

Ah, no one super important. She goes by Kizuna here on TOME. I'm rl friends with her, so I'm gonna go text her. Brb!


	5. Kizuna

Rollergal read the message over. For a minute she almost forgot she didn't really NOT who he was know who Kirbopher's friends were.

 _Who's Kizu- OH SHOOT…_

Logging off as fast as she could, she grabbed her phone. Yep, there was a pretty brief message asking why she hadn't logged on TOME recently. Quickly, she tried to send a response.

Hey, Kirb-

Ack, no. She facepalmed at her own stupidity. That's how _Rollergal_ would start her message. How did Kizuna start things, again? She didn't really, she got right to the purpose of the message. It was at this point that Kizuna realized what exactly she was getting herself into.

I'm fine. With the virus gone, I really have no reason to log back into TOME. I appreciate your concern.

There. Was that heartless enough? Would she even say she appreciated the fact he cared about her? _Did_ he really care about her? He phrased her in the message as "no one important…"

That realization hit her far harder than it should have. Suddenly all she wanted to do was go talk to him in person, have him reassure her that he still cared. Not that she deserved to be cared about, but because… well, because she cared about him. More than she wanted to.

She sighed and sent the text out as it was, then logged back into TOME. Only a few seconds later, Kirb logged back on, this time walking his character model over to hers personally.

"So, what'd she say?" she asked innocently. He bit his lip.

"She's alright, thankfully…"

"W-well that's good!" she responded, trying to maintain a cheerful attitude. Kirb himself seemed kind of depressed, but she didn't want to ask why… wait, why couldn't she? There wasn't any reason for him to get suspicious if it was only her.

"Um…" she asked awkwardly. "Are you okay? I mean, if it's personal, that's fine, but you seem kind of upset…"

Suddenly, Kirb threw his arms around her and pushed his face into her shoulder. Alarmed and surprised, she awkwardly hugged back, then started to try and calm him down.

"H-hey… it's alright. D-do you need to talk?" she asked. She was suddenly- almost violently- reminded of a time when TOME was still in development and Chris caught her in the break room crying. He locked the door and didn't let her come out until she told him what was wrong. She'd expected him to laugh when she finally told him it was just the fact that her cat had died the night before, but he just sat on the couch with her and stroked her hair until she felt better. Then John made her hot coffee and let her take up the easier tasks of the day.

She was snapped out of the memory by the realization that small tears of her own were forming in the corners of her character's eyes, and she quickly blinked them away. She didn't want to risk hacking in front of Kirb. Why Rubirules felt the need to make the character models realistic, she didn't know, and she wanted to give him a good beating for it.

Kirb pulled away almost as abruptly as he'd pulled himself into her and wiped his eyes with his sleeves.

"I'm sorry… I'm just…" He cleared his throat. "I'm really worried about her… l-like, not just the fact that she hasn't logged onto TOME in some time…" he slapped himself in the face. "Augh, I'm so sorry! This probably looks really stupid," he muttered. "But look, if you tell anyone about this…"

She smiled gratefully back. "It's fine. Although your model's eyes are kind of red…"

"Oh, right," he said. "Thanks. Look, ah…" he turned around several times to make sure no one was paying attention. "Please don't question how I know what to do what I'm about to do."

"Ahh… okay?" she asked- then realized, oh, he was hacking his model so you couldn't tell he'd been crying.

When he was done, Rollergal took the boy's wrist gently. "Come on. Let's go win some team battles."


	6. The Spying Session

Kirb laughed and high-fived Rollergal in another triumph, then sat down on the bench outside the arena.

"And another victory goes to Rollergal and her partner, Patches!" Roller laughed, in a mock announcer voice. Kirb cracked up and leaned back on the bench while looking at his partner. Her hand was resting very near his, but he dared not shift his any closer. She looked up at him, smiling.

"So, your turn to pick! Who do you want to challenge next?" she asked, surveying the group of characters walking by.

"Well, we have to find a pair first…" he said. While she looked among the city, he looked at her model. It seemed a mess at first, but the more you studied it, the more everything worked together. Camouflage-style, multi-color cargo shorts looked like paint had dripped off of the paintbrush onto them, while the noticeably pink and white roller skates matched the loose-fitting white tee. Shoulder and knee pads also fit this color scheme, while the wood of the tiny paintbrush matched the girl's short cut hair.

Kirb had heard it said many times not to judge a person by their real life appearance, but by their TOME character. While the idea seemed ironic at first, it actually made a lot of sense. With TOME as an outlet to share yourself or go anonymous, either way, a character reflected not what a person was born with, but what they could create in their minds. Without physical restrictions, an avatar could fully reflect what a person was like _inside_ \- which led Kirb to wonder what Rollergal's model was supposed to convey. As it seemed at first a jumble of odds and ends, then a deeply thought about, constructed model, Kirbopher could only draw one conclusion from the girl- beautiful chaos.

"Hey, they look good!" Rollergal laughed, snapping Kirb out of his thoughts and pointing at Alpha and Flamey.

"Oooh…" he said, noticing their intertwined hands. He grinned mischievously and stood up, motioning for her to follow him.

"Yea, they look good- for spying. Come on!"

Deciding just to roll with it, the girl crouched down and followed the short imp as he went around back of several buildings so he was tailing Alpha and Flamegirl. They tailed them a short time until they found out where the couple was going- a quiet, starlit reserve of ;Sanctuary that only had one green, sloping hill and no benches or buildings nearby. The couple ahead of them sat down peacefully, unaware that they were being watched from the trees behind. Seeing it might take a while before they said anything worthy of recording and using for blackmail, Kirb and Rollergal sat down quietly behind a bush against the trunk of one of the taller trees. The stars in the area seemed almost as though they'd been programmed brighter than the others- that, or it was just the lack of light pollution in the grassland.

As the spies tried to stay as silent as possible, Kirbopher once again stole a glance at Rollergal- as she attempted to do the same with him. Turning away quickly, he could feel his face flushing- but booting up a hacking program might cause too much attention. Suddenly, a PM appeared in front of him as one appeared in front of Rollergal. Freaking out and opening it up as quickly as possible so it would stop giving off the glowing red light, he scanned the message that read-

Gotcha ;)

Both Kirb and roller yelped as they were lifted into the air by the taller pair.

"Seems the spies have become the spy-ees," Flamegirl smirked.

"Did you PLAN this?" Rollergal shrieked.

"Yep. Welcome to the club," Alpha laughed. "I have to admit, Flamey, I wasn't sure your plan would work, but…"

She chuckled without letting her captive go. "Never doubt me." Then, studying Kirb and Rollergal, she casually commented, "You two are cute together."

"WHAT?!" They both exclaimed in unison. Alpha was by this point laughing his head off.

"It's nice to have a way to get revenge on you," he said to his best friend. "But now it's getting late. You two should log off."

Rollergal scoffed. "It's barely 7:00 where I'm at."

"Hey, same with me," noticed Kirb, before turning his attention back to kicking Alpha in the shins. The redhead laughed.

"Alright, alright, already. Me an' Steph are gonna log off for the night. But that was fun! We should do this again sometime."

And before the two could retort, Alpha and Flamegirl were off like a flash. In a flash. Literally. Their models descended into a flash of light and were taken out of the walls of TOME.

While Kirb looked down at his feet, attempting to slow down his heart rate from the sudden switcharoo, Rollergal took on a more firm, confident look and planted her hand on Kirbopher's shoulder.

"You know what this means."

He looked at her quizzically. "Umm… no?"

A mischievous smirk crept onto her face. "This means war."


	7. SOFDTI's log

Virtual Log.  
Property of SOFDTI.  
Please enter password:

Confirming password…  
Password confirmed. You may proceed.

 _New update: Alpha and Flamegirl have been active in what they call a "prank war" with Kirbopher and "Rollergal." Alpha and Flamegirl are experiencing only positive emotions from this and are not aware of the consequence they are having on the others. Kizuna is more concerned than ever that they will discover her secret, but she dares not show signs of fear. She is also slipping off into frequent daydreams about her partner and has been startled by me noticing several times; she believes we have a silent agreement that I shall not reveal her secrets if she shall not reveal mine. In truth I am only waiting so that she may experience the pain of the choices she has made before I step in. Kirbopher has been up late contemplating his conflicting emotions for who he believes to be two different girls. I suspect he will be approaching me soon on the topic, but I could be wrong._

 _Oh, yes. Nylocke is doing very well nowadays. He has told me that he is going to teach me how to role-play. I think I may actually enjoy that._


	8. The Truth Revealed

Kirbopher sighed and logged off of TOME. He knew he'd probably log back on in a few minutes. He's been at this for an hour now- trying to sort out his emotions. He took a deep breath. Okay, he needed to stop procrastinating. He needed advice from the one person who had all the answers.

When he once more stepped foot on the Terrain, Gamecrazed was already waiting for him expectantly. The others were all either not logged on or just not in the area.

Without saying a word, GC motioned for Kirb to follow her. Kirb shuddered- even without using her powers, the shadow was able to use body language to completely decipher someone's mood and a lot that was going on with their lives.

"What do you require help with?" she asked once they were in a quiet part of ;Sanctuary. Kirb sighed.

"You already know," he muttered. GC looked at him sternly.

"Although I can figure for myself what is troubling you, you need to speak your problems aloud to help _yourself_ first."

Moaning slightly, Kirb sat down and picked at the virtual grass. He knew Gamecrazed only wanted to help, but… why couldn't he just have the answers?

Next to him, his counselor remained silent, clearly waiting for Kirb to speak his thoughts. So, inhaling a deep breath, he did.

"I'm… confused… and… conflicted. When I was with Rollergal playing pranks on Alpha and Flames, it was really fun… but… I mean…" he sighed and faceplanted into his hands. "Do I have to go through this?"

Gamecrazed nodded.

"Well… I… I felt… different. Like, different than I do hanging out with you guys. I… augh." This was not easy, and it certainly seemed pointless since Gamecrazed already knew Kirb's true feelings.

"Go back a little further," GC suggested kindly. "Start near the beginning."

It took him a minute to figure out what that meant, but Kirb took another deep breath and started over.

"Okay, so what I'm feeling with Rollergal is like what I used to- or, well, still do- feel with Kizuna. We used to have so much fun together, and I loved being with her. But… after she became a workaholic… I still longed for her." Choking on his words and forcing them down, he went on.

"I felt… feel… all warm and nervous whenever I get near her, and I- I care about her a lot. Kizuna, I mean. B-but that's the thing- I'm feeling that way with Rollergal, too. I mean, maybe it's just that I'm awkward with girls, but I've never been that way around Flamey- o-or you…" his voice trailed off.

GC nodded. "Go on."

"W-well, that's sort of it. I… I think I might… Or, I thought I was… i-in love with Kizuna." He swallowed hard and felt his face start burning at getting out the words.

"B-but now… I feel almost disloyal… b-because I'm getting so nervous around Rollergal, and I know it's stupid, but I really miss Kizuna and I feel like Rollergal is part of the reason she's staying away… I know that's not true, but I feel like if I spent less time with her- and you guys-!- she might come back to me…" He hesitated. "But then I get distracted with quests and stuff and I…"

He shook his head in frustration. "I guess, bottom line is… I have really strong feelings for Kizuna. I don't doubt that. But I never thought I'd feel that way about anybody else BUT Kizuna."

Had she a mouth, Gamecrazed would have cracked a small smile. "And are you positive you do?"

Kirbopher turned to her angrily. "That's what I'm trying to tell you! I'm NOT! I'm not sure WHAT I'm feeling!"

Gamecrazed pondered for a moment as if she were about to tell a riddle- which, basically, she was.

"Would a person be cheating," she finally said slowly, "if they dated both you and Zetto at the same time?"

The squire cocked his head. "What? No. That doesn't make any sense. Wait, I'm confused. How does that-"

He was suddenly hit by what Gamecrazed was trying to get across.

"…"

"I'll leave you to think on it," GC responded, and went off to go find Nylocke.


	9. Invitation

Kizuna already felt dead inside. And then she got the text.

Hey, Lilly- it's Chris. I was wondering- Alpha's birthday is coming up in a week, and we've finally decided to all try and meet up in real life so we can celebrate! Alpha and Flamey and I are for going for sure. Nye is trying to find a flight to take; GC, of course, can't come (but we've scheduled some time that we'll all take out to go on TOME and visit her), and I'm waiting for a reply from Rollergal. So, yes, there will be other people there. But I think you need to interact more, and coming over to meet my friends would be just the way to do it. I'm sure they would love you, if you'd just come out of your shell and have some fun!

Please get back to me ASAP for details. I hope you can come.

He'd sent an invite to Rollergal?

 _Oh no, oh no, oh no, no, no…_

What did she do now?!


	10. Frustration

From: Rollergal

To: Kirbopher

Hi, Kirb. I got your message! I'd love to join you guys! Where's the meet-up being held? I can get there without any money issues, but you need to let me know ASAP so I can get a plane ticket if I need one. Btw, should I get a gift for Alpha? You know, if it's his birthday and all- and if so, what does he like other than TOME?

To: Rollergal

From: Kirbopher

I'll attach a link with the location and exact time below. Whether or not you get him a gift is up to you, I don't want to pressure you :) He's into a lot of other video games; I'll ask if he wants anything specific!

Rollergal took a deep breath. Okay, she'd gone this far. Now she couldn't back out- he already knew her in real life. When she showed up, he'd recognize her.

Well, maybe she could back out. She could fake an illness or sudden emergency, or pretend she didn't get the coordinates right, or do something otherwise saying she couldn't come and send Kizuna instead, or-

 _No._ She needed to do this. She remembered the look on Zetto's face every time he came back from hanging out with his friends. It always had a sadness hidden beneath the happy exterior, and it got to the point where one would think he got no pleasure at all from them- just because he knew he was hiding a secret from them. Kizuna remembered once he had talked about possibly deleting the Kirbopher account from existence, just so he didn't have to face Alpha and the others and tell them the truth. But he never would have seen them again, at least not as a friend. She didn't want- no, she couldn't let that happen. Zetto was really her only friend. If she admitted what she was up to now, she might save him and even gain Alpha and the others as true friends as well. She sighed as she roamed aimlessly about ;Mechcity. She ought to text him back as Kizuna soon… but how did she want to go about that? Should she tell him what was going on over text? Somehow, she didn't think that would be a good idea. Maybe she shouldn't respond as her at all, and just wait until she showed up at Alpha's or wherever they were hanging out… but that might worry him. Then did she say Kizuna could go, or not?

She moaned and sat down, holding her head in her hands. She knew what she had to do- but she had no idea what was the best way to go about doing it.

Behind a building, unseen from the troubled girl's eyes, Gamecrazed nodded.


	11. One Day Left

Only one day remained until the party.

Kirb paced nervously around ;Lavendara, small beads of sweat clinging to his neck. Kizuna hadn't responded via phone yet. Chris wondered if she was just going to show as Rollergal and pretend Kizuna didn't come… No, but she knew that he knew her real self. What on earth was she planning? Was she even going to show at all?

"I never should've pressured her like that…" he mumbled to himself, sitting beneath the shade of a tall purple tree. "I would've hated it if Alpha and the others did that to me…"

But it was too late. Explaining that he knew her double-identity now would cause even more last-minute confusion and explanations, and he wanted to procrastinate that sort of stuff for as long as possible.

"Gotcha!"

Kirb shrieked, caught unprepared by the redhead smirking down at him. The blue figure was soon thrown backward by his opponent's powerful fire fist, and he wasn't prepared enough to retaliate.

Lose! the game declared, the floaty white letters teasing Kirbopher by floating out of reach over his head. Smiling, Kirb put up his hands.

"Alright, alright. You ACTUALLY caught me lost in thought that time, not an excuse. What're you doing?" he asked, getting up with help from Alpha.

"Ah, not much. I was just going to see if Stephanie was online when I noticed you sitting all alone over here. What are YOU doing is the real question?"

Kirb looked down awkwardly. "Um, actually, I was thinking about tomorrow." He hadn't told his friend about Rollergal yet- he hadn't told any of them.

"Yea! I'm excited!" Alpha exclaimed in response, then noticed Kirb's worried face. "You alright?"

"Yea. Just…" he paused, not sure what to say. "It's nothing. I don't know if she wants me sharing anything with you guys. You'll get what I'm talking about tomorrow."

Almost giving off a fangirl-like shriek, Alpha whistled. "Now I'm curious. What, exactly, does Rollergal not want you to share with us?"

"What? AUGH! NO!" he shouted back. "Not Rollergal! GAMECRAZED doesn't want me sharing things. There's three girls in our group, why do you automatically jump to Rollargal?"

Alpha chuckled, glad for another opportunity to embarrass his friend. "Oh, I don't know… You hang out with her most often, it's not a bad guess. Now, I'm sure I don't know WHAT you get up to in the quiet recesses of ;Sanctuary when we aren't around…" he winked.

"Ack! Alpha… please," he sighed. "Look, I'm REALLY not in the mood for this right now."

The boy's face turned from glee to concern. "Alright. Are you sure you're okay?"

He sighed. "I guess. Just… well, like I said. You'll get everything tomorrow. Everything should be cleared up then."

 _I hope._


	12. Time To Leave

"Oh boy… Ooooh boy. No. You gotta do this. You gotta calm down. Nothing'll… nothing'll go wrong! I mean… everything's going to be cleared up, so why should I worry?"

Kizuna looked over at the cat that shared her character's namesake. "You aren't freaked out by me talking to myself, are you?"

Kitty Kizuna meowed and jumped off the couch, onto the counter. Wondering if she was trying to tell her something, Kizuna glanced at her phone. Nope, the latest message was sent by her, telling Chris she could make it to the party after all. She almost turned her phone off when she noticed the time in the top right-hand corner.

"Gah! A little warning would've been nice!" she snapped to the reddish-orange tabby. Throwing her pre-packed suitcases over her shoulder, she quickly ran out and got on her way to the airport.


	13. Confessions

"Ku!" Alpha yelped excitedly.

"What?!" Kirb exclaimed. His rival pointed to a symbol on the card he held.

"That's a green. So the card is ku!"

Grumbling about not having hacks in card games, Kirb tossed the card onto the nearby discard pile. Flamey, who was partnered up with him, scowled.

"We might actually be WINNING this game if you let me choose the cards," she said.

"Fine then," he sighed, "see if YOU can get us out of this rut. I'm going to go check on Nye."

Walking out to the small but clean backyard, Kirb smiled at the delicious scent of barbeque that filled the smoke in the air.

"How are the burgers, Nye?" he asked. Colin smiled at him, waving away the smoke to see him more clearly.

"Better than expected, fair squire Christopher! They should be ready in just a few ticks of the clock!"

Chris smiled and rolled his eyes. "So my name changes, but not my title? Really? I'm practically as tall as you are in real life. At LEAST call me a knight."

The blond chuckled, flipping one of the burgers. "That is not the way my titles work, squire. For I am… COLIN! MMMMASTER OF COMING UP WITH OLD ENGLISH TITLES FOR MY COMRADES!"

Chris gave a warm chuckle. "All right. You need anything?"

"Actually, squire, I believe I lost one of the jars full of spice while I was attempting to save it from your grasp. Wouldst thou be willing to climb the mountain of steps and retrieve it?"

The younger boy nodded. "You mean you left the paprika upstairs when we used it as a flag?"

"… Do not insult my way of language."

Chris laughed. "All right, all right. I'll go upstairs and find it." He walked back into the house, closing the door and coughing slightly from the smoke. Glancing over at the couple in the living room, he said, "Nye left the paprika upstairs when we were playing capture-the-spice, I'm going to go find-"

 **Ding dong!**

Chris froze in his steps. Turning slowly to Alpha and Flamey, they nodded for him to open the door. He somewhat shakily turned the knob, letting a damp Lilly into the doorway.

"H-hey," she said. "Sorry I'm a little wet, I lost track of time and didn't take a shower until right before I had to leave…"

"N-no! It's fine!" Chris stammered. "We're glad you could make it! Come on in!" He held the door open for her as she stepped inside and headed towards the living room, where Michael was momentarily distracted from his frustration to greet the girl.

"Hi! You're Lilly!" he said, looking over at Chris. "I'd invite you to play, but-"

"We already have teams of two, and technically only two people can play at a time anyway," Stephanie quickly finished. Looking at Chris, she said, "Why don't you take her upstairs to search for the paprika with you? We can do proper introductions once Nylocke's done with the burgers and we're all in the same room."

"Sounds like a plan to me!" he said, leading her upstairs.

Lilly smiled to herself as Zetto led her up the stairs. She hadn't expected Stephanie and the others to be so nice, especially since they only knew her as Kizuna at the moment.

She was suddenly jerked into a realization as Chris started searching his bedroom for where Nylocke had hidden the spice jar earlier. Flamegirl had said 'once Nylocke was done with the burgers and they were all in the same room.' _But she hadn't mentioned Rollergal._

"Found it!" Chris cried, pulling a small red container out from behind a pillow. "Now let's go give it back to-"

He stopped as she stood in the doorway, sweat running down her face. "K-Kizuna? Are you alright?"

"…"

The girl responded with silence. If Flamegirl already knew her secret, then-

 _Then she likes you regardless,_ a small voice whispered in her head. She suddenly cracked a feeble smile. She didn't have to be afraid- Chris was her friend. And so were Stephanie, and Michael, and Colin; and even SOFDTI was putting up with her. She didn't need to hide anything from them at all- because they were her friends, and friends forgave each other.

"Chris," she said quietly while closing the door, "there's something I need to tell you."

Chris blinked, then zipped up his hoodie a little nervously. "O-okay." He didn't say it like it was a question. He said it like he knew what was coming next.

Kizuna sighed and sat down on the floor, putting her bags at the edge of his bed. "A few weeks ago, I… may or may not have pulled a Kirbopher." She looked down, waiting for him to ask her what she meant.

Instead, he looked down with her. "I know," he mumbled quietly. Her brow furrowed into confusion.

"Wait... what?"

Chris swallowed and looked at the girl. "I should've told you when I found out, I guess… But Gamecrazed told me everything."

Her shoulders relaxed in relief, but her eyes widened in fear. "She told you… e-everything?"

"Yea," he sighed. Then it was his turn to be confused. "I think. I mean, she told me about Rollergal. Was there more…?"

She breathed a sigh of relief and opened her mouth to say "no," but then she hesitated. It had never occurred to her that she might be confessing how she felt that night, but… maybe it would be better to liberate all secrets. Maybe the whole group could finally be clean, once and for all.

"Actually…" she swallowed. Her own brain didn't believe that her mouth was doing this. (Her mouth and heart never got along very well.)

"There… sort of is something," she mumbled. Now Chris was getting nervous, too- she could've sworn she saw a flash of color in his cheeks, but that could've just been her reaction to knowing hers were already bright red.

"I… actually… kind of… might… have a crush on you," she confessed quietly. The whole house was silent for a moment. Kizuna felt about twenty little voices inside her head kicking the one that had spoken up.

Suddenly, eyes wide and hands shaking, Chris responded, "I-"

" _Chriiiiis!_ "

He jerked his head in surprise toward the door, then quickly ran over and opened it.

"Yea?" he called downstairs, his heart still racing.

"Did you find the paprika yet?!" Alpha cried up.

"Yea, just a minute!" he responded, trying to keep his voice as casual as possible. Turning back to Lilly with his face redder than the bottle he was holding, he made a split second decision. He'd interrupted Alpha and Flamey in the worst possible moments plenty of times; he probably deserved some payback. But he wasn't going to leave this night open-ended- that's what he had webshows for.

Pulling her to her feet and wrapping his arms around her, Chris suddenly pulled the confused girl into a kiss on the lips as his response, then pulled back just as quickly.

"Coming!" he yelled, and ran down the stairs as fast as he could, leaving the cat-girl to slowly cover her mouth in shock and lean against the wall to avoid falling down. Despite herself, she felt herself break into a huge, stupid grin. Not the most romantic confession ever, that was for sure. But he liked her back. She had friends waiting downstairs for her- friends that were possibly smart enough to figure out double-identity crisis from past experience. And she was about to have the best night of her life.

How did it get any better than this?


End file.
